Jack Graham - On Purpose For A Purpose

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Take your Bibles and turn with me to Proverbs, the third chapter. And today’s subject in our series is «On Purpose for a Purpose» because every child of God is born on purpose and to live for the purposes of God in our lives. You are made for Him. You’re not an accident, a product of chance or circumstance. Every life is a plan and purpose of God. And the will of God is certainly an essential because of all the questions I get from years as a pastor, so often they come down to decisions that we make and how we make good decisions and godly decisions. How can we know, how can we find, fulfill and follow God’s will in our lives?

There’s a man who got in bed one dark night and when he slipped under the covers, he reached over and touched his wife’s face and hair. Then in just a moment he reached out and took her hand and held it for just a moment. And then he moved down towards her knee and was caressing her knee. (Don’t get nervous. It’s a story.) Caressing her knee. And then he stopped. And she says, «Why did you stop»? He said, «I found the remote». Well, you don’t have to live groping in the darkness! And even in dark days, like today in the world, there is God’s way for every dark day in your life personally and in my life.

And when we speak of God’s guidance, we know that God’s guidance in a general sense, all the people, but I’m saying according to God’s Word, that there is a personal promise for every one of us that God will lead us. And the will of God is not something that we have to do; it’s something we get to do. I like to say that God would choose for you what you would choose for yourself, if you had sense enough to choose it. And God’s best is available for His children. He loves you and has this fantastic plan for your life. So success in life, you want to know what success is. I like to say, «Success is the progressive realization of the will of God for our lives».

That’s what real success is all about. Discovering, and then doing the will of God from the heart. And so Proverbs 3:5-6, very meaningful verses to me personally. I memorized them as a youth. In fact, I had a small bookmark with Proverbs 3:5-6 posted on a little bulletin board in my room in east Fort Worth when I was growing up as a teenager. Later on, when I yielded my life and gave my life to preach the Gospel, it was these verses that prompted me and propelled me to say yes to the call of God in my life. So I want you to read this verse. Many of you know this verse and have memorized these verses. But I want you to hear them today relative to God’s will and purpose for your life, perhaps as you have never heard or read them before. «Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path».

To put it another way, to paraphrase The Message gave it this way: «Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track». I like that. And then the New Living Translation puts it this way: «Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will», and in the Living Bible, it says, «Put God first in your life in all that you do, and he will show you which path to take». So there it is. The will of God is not really a formula; certainly, it’s not fate or circumstances or good fortune, but it is by faith that we find, follow and fulfill the will of God. So as I was looking at this verse once again, as I have, of course, many, many times, I divided it up into three premises and a promise, three premises or three principles and a promise.

So let’s cover the three premises first. The first premise is this: «Trust in the Lord with all your heart». So this is a positive premise, something that we do. It’s personal and it is positive. It is all about this relationship that we have God. First and foremost, the will of God is about our character. Before it becomes about our conduct, what we do, it’s the development of our character and our Christ-likeness. Trusting in the Lord with all your heart. So God’s will is not really a roadmap, as I would see it, but a relationship, as we’re walking with the Lord and trusting in Him. And to do it, to trust in God with all our heart, with all of my life. The heart being the center, the core of your being, representing the you of you; the inner you.

So with all you have. With everything within us. We use the word like this: all, «I love you with all my heart». Or «I’m going to put my heart into this job; I’m going to give everything I’ve got». That’s the idea of trusting in the Lord with all your heart. To seek Him first in all things. After all, 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, «Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God». And when you put first things, when you give Him that place of preeminence, not just priority, but preeminence in your life because ultimately this is about the Lordship of Jesus in each of us. Christ who is Lord, who lives in us. But I was thinking about some of the ways, practically, personally, that we put God first. One, give God the first part of your day.

Do you give God the first part of your day? When you get up in the morning, do you seek Him above all and before all? I know it can be a challenge with all the chaos of getting the kids out of bed and off to school if you’re a young family. Or just getting yourself out of bed some mornings. But get up before the day begins, before the sunlight burst forth on a new day and spend time with God, practicing this principle of first things, first; before business, before school, before the challenges of the day, give God the first part of your day. The psalmist said in Psalm 37 and verse 4: «Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart». And so when we desire the will of God, when we delight in the will of God, we start early, seeking Him. Getting our marching orders for the day. Getting on His schedule and aligning our will with the will of God. Give Him the first part of your day.

Secondly, if you want to make sure that first things are first and you are giving all your heart to Him, putting Him first in your life, then give God the first day of your week. And the first day of the week is this day, the Lord’s Day. Sunday is not the weekend! It’s not the Jewish Sabbath. The Jewish Sabbath was yesterday on Saturday. But as Christians, we worship on the Lord’s Day. Why is it the Lord’s Day? It’s the resurrection day, the first day of the week. And the early Christians pivoted from the Sabbath to what we would call Sunday, the Lord’s Day. And so it’s the principle of giving the first day of the week. God will bless you and benefit you, when you give the first day of your week to the Lord. And that means worshiping Him. I’m not going to give you a list of what you should do and what you shouldn’t do on the Lord’s Day.

But I know above all things, on the Lord’s day we should make Him number one in all that we do. Sunday is not the last day of the week; it’s the first day of a brand-new week. And your week, I’m telling you, will go a lot better if you put Him first in your life and start your week by worshiping Him, opening God’s Word as you’re doing right now and being a part of the fellowship of God’s church. We are seeing the de-churching of America. Church attendance is down, way, way down, and it went exponentially even more downward in the trends at the pandemic and many people are not back. But there’s some studies, there’s some data now as to why people aren’t going to church and why people haven’t come back to church, even after the COVID19 scare.

You know the reasons? It’s not because most have abandoned their faith. There are some who have abandoned faith and there’s deconstruction of faith and apostasy going on. But that’s really a small percentage of people who are de-churched today. It’s not even that they are unchurched. They once were churched, but now they’re de-churched. And you know the number one reason by far that people are not going to church today? They say, «I’m too busy». «I just got out of the habit». «We got things going on in our lives». I mean, «There are trips to take» and «There’s kids and their ballgames», and «There is lake houses», and «There’s vacations», and «We’re tired at the end of the week» and «We just got out of the habit». I spoke with a person the other day in our community. Just finding out she was a Prestonwood member, and I said, «You know, how you liking church»? She said, «Well, we’re just not back yet. I don’t know why. We just got out of the habit. But we’re going to get there». The priority of a Christian is to worship God on God’s Day in God’s church. And so I want to challenge you to get back in church if you’re out.

Number three, give God the the first part of your income. That’s Proverbs 3:9. It’s right there in the text, below Proverbs 3:5-6, and that is: «Give the first fruit of your labor to the Lord». All of our possessions belong to Him. And the first fruit, that’s agricultural language, of course, of the crops, of the possessions, of what you own and possess; the first belongs to God. First things, first. What is a tithe? A tithe is a tenth of your income. No! A tithe is not a tenth of our income; it is the first tenth of our income. It’s the principle of giving God first in all that we have and all that we own. And so, not only do we bring ourselves and families to God’s church on God’s Day, but we bring our tithes and our offerings with us, as God has commanded us. This is a principle, this is a premise. You want to know God’s will? You want obey God? The things that He’s already showed you because let me say that God will not take us one step further than the measure of our obedience to Him. And if I’m disobedient to God, why should I expect Him to lead me to do anything? Why don’t you do the thing right in front of you? Do what God has commanded and called all of us to do.

Number four, give Him priority in every decision you make, both large and small. Second Corinthians 8, verse 5, it says: «But they first gave themselves to the Lord». Before they gave their money, before they gave their possessions and practiced stewardship which is lordship, they gave themselves to the Lord. So give yourself completely, all of your heart to Jesus, as Matthew 6:33 «Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you».

So give the first part of your day to the Lord; give the first day of the week, today, the Lord has made for Him, and give the first part of your income to the Lord. And then give the first part of your life, the best part of your life, give yourself first to Lord above all else, and all those decisions that we’re making, that they would honor God and please Him. And then fourthly, give Him the first devotion, the first love of your heart. Jesus spoke to a church in Ephesus who left their first love, and He said, «I have this against you; that you left your first love».

First love is emotional and passionate. You might call it the honeymoon love. It’s the brush and the blush of first love. And we are to maintain that in our marriages, our love and our devotion to one another. If your love is not growing in your relationship to your husband and wife, it’s probably dying. So we cultivate that relationship and that love. And we ought to be loving each other more and more. As we grow older we shouldn’t be growing colder, but more loving and warm and passionate for one another and kind. And what is true in human relationship, is true in our relationship with God.

Jesus said not that you’ve lost your first love; but you left it behind. And so we should give our first love for Jesus. Above all other love in our live, that we would love Him. So let me ask you, do you trust Him with all your heart? To know Him is to love Him; and to love Him is to trust Him; and to trust Him is to obey Him and do what He tells us to do. Have you given your life completely to Him? That’s really what this message is about. It’s about trusting the Lord with all your heart, knowing that He is faithful. We just sang it; we just said it. Lord, you are faithful. Many are untrustworthy, but God is faithful and trustworthy. He will never break a promise to you. You can trust God with everything and anything in your life. Amen?

Secondly, premise number two, lean on the Lord. For it says: «Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding». As I noted in the paraphrase in The Message, said: «Don’t try to figure things out on your own». It really means, don’t rely or depend upon your own knowledge or your own understanding. It doesn’t say: don’t have understanding or don’t have knowledge; it says don’t lean on your own knowledge, on your own understanding. Ephesians 5:17 concerning the will of God, said, «Understand what the will of the Lord is».

So understanding is a part of this. But we don’t lean on our own understanding. If you don’t trust the Lord with all your heart, you’re probably are trying to figure out things in your own way. Am I right? It’s when I don’t really trust God for that situation that I start trying to figure it out for myself. And that’s a recipe for failure, not success. That’s losing, not winning when it comes to the will of God. I believe in education. I actually liked school growing up. And I liked high school; I even liked middle school for the most part. I loved being in college, university, where Deb and I met, out at Hardin-Simmons. I loved furthering my education. That was a privilege. Not many people in our family had the privilege of being college educated. Generations before us did not have the privilege that many of us have to get formal education.

My own father dropped out of school in the eighth grade to go to work for his family. And some of you, you didn’t have the opportunity to have a formal education. So we don’t take that for granted, whether it’s personal education, self-educated or whether formal education, I’m for it. Seminary — loved every second of it really. I hope you’re a life-long learner. We should be learning all the days of our lives. «Study to show yourself approved; a workman that needs not to be ashamed». So I’m often studying, and not just for sermons, but we should be reading books and listening to podcasts. I would encourage you if you have the opportunity, to enroll in a Bible class, or a course in college outside of your expertise.

Do something new. Learn something new. Get all the knowledge that you can God’s way. But don’t lean on your own understanding when it comes to making decisions regarding the will of God. Listen and learn, because we don’t rely on what we know. There are lots of things we don’t know. And if you think you’re, you know, it’s like the old saying: «If you’re the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room». Right? There’s always more to learn. And we don’t know what we don’t know! So we can’t lean on our own understanding. We can’t see the future. We don’t know what may be coming.

So what should we do with knowledge? We should treat knowledge with humility. Not with arrogance, «I’m smarter than you. I’m smarter than God». No, we treat knowledge with humility because all knowledge really comes from God. And what we need is wisdom. And when we pray and ask God for wisdom, what is wisdom? Wisdom is the application of knowledge. Wisdom is seeing things from God’s perspective. It’s seeing life as God sees life, and living it accordingly. So how do we have wisdom? It starts with asking God for wisdom. James tells us in the midst of adversity in life, in the midst of the problems that we face, the crisis of life, what are we to do when we don’t know what to do? When we’re so hurt, we can’t even breathe a prayer, what are we to do? We’re to cry out to God for wisdom.

And God says, «I’ll give you wisdom when you don’t understand». And then we have God’s Word, because God’s Word is the guidebook. It’s like, I was thinking today, the Bible is like a passport for us to live in a foreign land. This world isn’t our home. But God has given us a passport. And in God’s Word we find God’s will. God’s Word is God’s will and God’s will is God’s Word! Get it? God’s will is God’s Word; God’s Word is God’s will. So we have His Word to us that we might learn to depend upon Him and not ourselves, and to ask for the wisdom in His Word. And that brings me to the third principle or premise, which is walk in His way. It says: «In all your ways acknowledge Him». In all your ways.

So in your way and on your way, walking in the way. The Bible says, Psalms 37, «The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in his way». And I might add, not only the steps, but the stops are ordered by the Lord. Because we are trusting in Him and we’re all in with Him, and we begin walking right into the will of God. This is the way I see the will of God: Obey God every step of the way. It’s not so much about what is the will of God five years from now, ten years from, long-range plans; that’s fine. But really the will of God is not about the next fifteen years; it’s about the next five minutes, the next 15 minutes. And as we’re walking with Him, what happens is the providences of life begin to work in our lives.

What is the providences? It’s the hand, the invisible hand of God working and weaving His way in our life. And so providences count, circumstances that are controlled by the hand of God. And God brings people into our lives or decisions and opportunities and open doors and closed doors as we’re walking. What did Paul say? «Present your bodies as a living sacrifice unto the Lord, and don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God».

Here’s a little formula, if you want a formula. It’s a biblical one. Presentation plus transformation equals revelation. Presentation — You present your life unreservedly to the Lord, or that decision, you give it to God. «Lord, I give this to you». And then God through His Word, through His will begins to work in your mind. He gives you mental clarity and spiritual focus so you begin to see. Psalm 119:105 «Your word, O Lord, is a light unto my path; a lamp unto my feet». And so we’re taking one step at a time. He lights the way. He opens the door. We walk in it. You’ll hear a voice behind you, the psalmist said, saying, «Walk in this way», and so we keep walking.

As we keep walking in the will of God, we keep doing the will of God. The will of God is not so much us finding the will of God, but the will of God finding us as we walk with Him. So presentation — «Present your body as a living sacrifice»; plus transformation — «a renewing of your mind», equals revelation — «that you may prove what is a good and perfect will of God for your life». Here’s what know: God’s will is good and perfect and acceptable. He leads us not only by providences in this way, but what I would call promptings given to us by the Holy Spirit. You have a Counselor within.

The Spirit of Christ, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit lives within each of us and Romans 8 tells us: «As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God». So there’s objective leading in God’s Word. One preacher said, «Ninety-nine percent of the will of God is above your neck». So there’s objective knowledge but then there’s the subjective, and I do believe the Spirit of God leads us and prompts us along the way. This is the end of baseball season. But it’s the start of football season. It’s been going a while.

And if you’re a football fan, you know that games are typically won and lost not by the stars, you know, the great line receivers or quarterbacks, but games are won in the trenches. And when you look at the offensive line in a football team, really, all the blockers are the football team, make the plays go and the team wins. And so, it’s beautiful if you like offensive football, to see all the blocks being executed and the movement and a strategic play, a winning play and so the running back or the wide receiver gets the ball; they’re blocking down field; opens the door to winning the score.

So think of it this way, all you football fans: God is down field, blocking for you. He’s got a plan, and He is clearing a path. That’s what this word means. He’s straightening the path, He’s clearing the path, He’s opening the door of opportunity for you! All you need to do is run with all your might! #Winning! Because this is how we win — when we let God lead the way through our lives and just follow Him. The Lord knows the way through the wilderness! All I’ve got to do is follow. «Trust the Lord with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding. In all of your ways put Him first in everything you do, and He will direct your path».